….and it’s one week afterwards and I still haven’t started properly – finding a suitable song to begin with is more difficult than perhaps I first imagined. So I’ll start with something simple and try to improve as time goes on.

Whenever I’m having a particularly frustrating day, the song I turn to is 59 Times The Pain. As a song it’s slightly frustrating to listen to because the vocals in the verse are so muddy and indistinct as to be superfluous and occasionally it seems distinctly possible that they’re not playing in time. But it redeems itself as the chorus approaches – the tempo speeds up as if to signal the oncoming onslaught, the vocals rise from a drone to a hysterical screech and suddenly the listener is hit with a fantastic, bellowed, anthemic chorus. For me, one of Bob’s special talents is that when he turns on the angst, no matter how bad my current emotions may be, he sounds as if he’s having it far, far worse and it puts my own feelings into perspective. So, no matter how bad my day has been, singing along with that chorus is guaranteed to lift my spirits for the rest of the day.

One morning several months ago I woke up with what seemed a reasonable idea – to write a blog about the music I listen to. Not every track would be universally recognised as being beautiful, but they all should have something that has an effect on me, be it sparking a memory or altering a mood.

Time passed by, and the idea got shelved because the day I wanted to start was the morning of the terrorist attacks on the tube and buses in London and it seemed somewhat frivolous to start on such a sombre day, but today I’ve decided to dust it off and give it a go. Let’s see how it goes…